Recent reviews by WeebMatt

Consistency is key in games when trying to keep players playing your games. While I agree reviewing a game after only playing 1/3 of the game's length isn't super fair, it's very clear all of CD Project Red's effort went into the first part of the game as it's the most enjoyable and immediately falls off after the introduction.

Keep in mind this review is based on my experiences with the first 9 hours. This may be updated in the future. I'm making this review now because I think it's valuable to have perspectives from all sorts of points of completion.

Plot and Characters (4/10)
The plot begins based on your choice of what background you want your custom character to be. This was a really cool feature that I thought could be a really good way to improve replayability, having different stories based on what you choose. This was quickly dismissed as my friends told me the only things it affects in the game is the first mission. Immediately after this disappointment comes a montage of the main character (MC) and his friend Jackie. This is the second biggest disappointment, as it rushes through 6 months of what looks like fun missions that would help develop the MC, Jackie. and their relationship. It's very clear these two parts were rushed and were most likely intended to be fully fleshed out parts of the game but the developers ran out of time. While I don't see cool concepts with poor execution as good, I appreciate the effort. However, I find cool concepts with zero execution or effort even worse.

Spoilers for the first couple hours:
After a couple missions, the best written character so far, Jackie, gets killed off. While my reaction was hindered by the E3 trailer spoiling this plot point, I doubt I would've cared much regardless.

World and World Building - 5/10
Seeing the world in the trailers was amazing. The neon lights and towering buildings built up this oppressive city to be futuristic and bustling with people. Only a part of this stands in the final release, which is the buildings. The NPCs around the world have the same look of crazy coloured hair with emo accessories with little to no dialogue. You can see identical NPCs walking next to eachother destroying the immersion.
The world building for what I played was decent. The flashback scene with Johnny, and the missions to do with the large corporations create motive for Johnny, but no motive for the player. The main issues I have with the world is when it takes you away from the city areas, as it's clearly trying to be something it's not.

Gameplay - 2/10
The gameplay of this game is a wreck. This is the area where I will be addressing the bugs and glitches aswell as it seems most appropriate. I'm a big RPG fan, so when I heard this was going to be a looter shooter with skill trees I was cautiously optimistic. The end result is a standard cut and paste looter shooter formula with stat upgrades in skill trees. You use gun, loot enemy, find better gun, equip better gun, repeat. While this cycle is standard of RPG of getting new equipment, there's nothing to hook me. Skill trees usually give a sense of variety but it feel empty and I feel no excitement when receiving a skill point. Every single fight in this game feels the exact same.

The bugs and glitches in this game are inexcusable. While the gameplay has been cleaned up with less bugs, I still encountered many glitches when I played the game over a year after it released.
These bugs are a big part that takes me out of the experience even when coping saying it's a part of the 'Cyberpunk charm'. Many NPCs' animations are out of sync with objects they interact with, making objects either float or completely disappear.

Here is a clip I recorded: https://youtu.be/3oj__iP5Ebw

Art Style and Graphics - 9/10
This game looks amazing. Each texture is well detailed and the important characters have very intricate models, such as being able to see the pores on their faces. Everyone besides the important characters have the same fidelity of standard NPC with little detail. The lighting is probably the most impressive thing about this game, perfectly capturing the Cyberpunk aesthetic. The art style isn't anything crazy, just what you'd think when you hear 'Cyberpunk'.

Soundtrack and Audio Design - 6/10
Overall a decent soundtrack from what I heard. Not many songs that blew me away besides the song that plays during Johnny's section that I played. Overall the soundtrack is fairly consistent that fit the Cyberpunk vibe with some surprises such as Run The Jewels being featured. Personal bias may come in here as I much prefer orchestral, real sounding instruments in soundtracks over digital sounding soundtracks as it tends to move and impress me more, however it clearly fits in this case. It's not a soundtrack I would go back to over other games, or even listen to out of the game.

Replayability - 4/10
I am aware there are multiple endings, but because I have not even reached one, this score was going to stay at an average score for the time being as I don't have the intention of replaying the game after I eventually complete it at the moment. There's nothing I've seen that would encourage me to do another playthrough. However due to the lack of depth of the initial background choice, I've lowered the score by 1.

Enjoyment - 6/10
I'm being extremely lenient here, as the most enjoyable part of the game is the parts the developers didn't intend to be in the game, the glitches. Streaming this game to my friends and laughing at all the random t-posing, people walking through walls or disappearing, cops appearing out of nowhere, was a great time. However, beneath that there isn't much enjoyment. Gameplay wise, there is not much enjoyment as it's mindless shooting slamming Mouse 1 until the enemies die, inhale a puffer when I get low on health, rinse and repeat. Since the bugs and glitches are being patches, the most enjoyable part of the game is being removed, increasing the quality of the game but decreasing the fun of the game.

Overall - 4/10
Honestly, if I were to recommend this game to anyone, I would not know what I could say positively besides "The game looks great." and "Has one cool character that dies immediately." and probably also "It's fun to make fun of with friends."

its good

god

Final Fantasy VII has become a huge part of gaming history. It was originally released in 1997 for the PS1, and has since become a cult hit. It is easily the most popular Final Fantasy game to date, which is not surprising considering how amazing this game is. You play as Cloud Strife, a man who used to be in a group named SOLDIER, the most powerful team controlled by Shinra. Shinra controls the whole world's power supply. After deciding that Shinra's ways weren't for him, he became a freelancing mercenary. He is introduced to Barrett, the founder of a group called AVALANCHE, by Tifa, Cloud's childhood friend. Cloud is interested in AVALANCHE's motive, and their goal of trying to take down Shinra, so he joins them. Throughout Final Fantasy VII, Cloud ventures around the world trying to stop Shinra, and searching for his nemesis, Sephiroth.

Story - 9/10
The story of Final Fantasy VII is fantastic. On the surface, it may just seem like a normal JRPG where you play as anime-style main character and go around and save the world, but the game gets much deeper than that. Things seem pretty straightforward and easy to understand until you get around the halfway point, and things really start to pick up. I obviously can't go much into without spoiling anything, but there are plenty of plot twists along the way and new things you constantly learn about the world and all of the characters.

Characters - 10/10
Final Fantasy VII has some of the most likeable and recognisable JRPG characters ever. Cloud is known worldwide for his crazy spiky hair and unrealistic Buster Sword. In the first few hours, Cloud seems like an edgelord, saying things about how he doesn't care about anyone and is only doing the job for the money and for himself, no one else. But after he gets to know all the characters, he becomes an extremely likeable character. He's brave, funny, outgoing, and at some points, romantic. Cloud's childhood friend, Tifa Lockheart, is very well written character. The lengths that she goes to in order to save Cloud is insane. She always gets everyone back on their feet if they're ever feeling down, and for all that she's done for the team, she has easily become my favourite character in the whole game. The rest of the cast get a lot of development throughout the game. Barrett is funny and somewhat-tsundere, Aeris is so kind and caring for everyone, Red XIII has a very interesting backstory and is overall a very likeable character. Yuffie is pretty crazy at times, and her role in a side quest definetly bumped her down in my list of favourite characters, but she's still likeable throughout the main story. Vincent is just an edgelord, Cid is hilarious and swears in every sentance and finally, Cait Sith. Cait Sith is easily the least developed character in the whole game, and this could be caused due to him being introduced in the story quite late compared to everyone else, but he still has a lot of things going for him. There is a bit of a plot twist concerning him, but he continues to do whatever he can to help out the team. Overall, the characters in FFVII are very well written, and go along with the story perfectly.

Gameplay - 10/10
I'm going to break this section up into two parts.

Part 1 - The Overworld -
Final Fantasy VII's overworld is very rememerable. The overworld is broken up into three main continents, East (which is where you start), West, and finally North. The terrain is very diverse, and contains so many different environments. Rarely can you ever not figure out where you are on the map since the places are so distinct, you can instantly tell where you are. Just like most other Final Fantasy games, Final Fantasy VII allows you to ride a boat and airship to get to secret and special places depending on what vehicle you're using. You can also breed Chocobos in this game! This is quite important, as there are a few Materia that are only accessible via Chocobo, including the most powerful summon in the whole game, "Knights of the Round".

Part 2 - The Battle System -
Final Fantasy VII uses the ATB (Active Time Battle) system previously introduced in FFIV, and for a turn based RPG, it never seems slow. You can only have 3 characters in your party at a time, and almost all the time require Cloud to be in the team. When you get into a battle, you have the option of using Attack or Item, but by equiping Materia, you can expand your options in battle. Every weapon and armor has a set amount of Materia slots, and the whole system revolves around this Materia. Materia is the way you use magic and summons, and way more. For example, let's say Cloud has the Buster Sword equipped, which has two Materia slots, and you would like to have the Magic Fire, and the Summon Ifrit on Cloud. Well, all you have to do is equip the Materia onto the equipment and it's as easy as that. Of course, you at first have to find or buy the Materia that you want to use, it doesn't just appear out of nowhere, but once you get the hang of the system it's very easy to get lost in trying different combinations of Materia, as there are Materia that changes the character dramatically, such as pairing a Magic with the Materia "Added Cut", which makes Cloud attack the enemy again after casting that specific magic the Added Cut Materia is linked to. The combat is quite deep but works wonderfully.

Graphics - 7/10
I will admit, Final Fantasy VII hasn't aged the greatest, but everyone's models in FFVII has become very iconic for their blocky-ness. The standout part of the graphics is for sure the pre-rendered cutscenes. The pre-rendered cutscenes at the time of the games release were so incredible, and still hold up pretty well today. Although some parts are a bit iffy, such as seeing in game models within the pre-rendered cutscenes looks pretty weird since they stand out a lot. If you can look past the poorly aged graphics, which you absolutely should, you should have no problem.

Soundtrack - 10/10
EASILY one of THE BEST soundtracks in all of gaming. So many tracks in this game are so recognisable, such as the battle theme, the victory fanfare, and probably the most popular, One-Winged Angel, Sephiroth's theme. Some of my personal favourites that I haven't mentioned are JENOVA, Aeris' Theme, Barrett's Theme, Lurking in the Darkness, Underneath the Rotting Pizza (Yes that's real), Oppressed People, Who Are You (because it's so creepy), Still More Fighting, Ahead on Our Way, Valley of the Fallen Star, Reunion, A Secret Sleeping in the Deep Sea, Parochial Town, The Countdown Begins, Jenova Absolute and Birth of a God. Words cannot describe how every track fits with the scenario, It's truly incredible.

Final Score: 9.5/10

Overall, Final Fantasy VII is easily one of the best PS1 games, quite possibly one of the greatest games of all time, and the reason for that is very obvious when you play it. The game is very cheap for the amount of time you'll put in to it and how immersed you'll be. Sure, there are a couple things holding this game back such as the graphics and the slow start, but when things start to pick up with the story, ♥♥♥♥ hits the fan very quickly. The characters are all enjoyable and easily recognised, and these are the reason why I think Final Fantasy VII has to be one of the greatest games I've ever played.

Full Review:

Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition is a more expansive version of the 2008 gmae Devil May Cry 4. It contains more playable characters, more modes, graphical improvements, difficulty balancing and more. There is no reason to get Devil May Cry 4 over this since this is the same game but much better. At the start of the game, you play as Nero, a teenager who is somehow related to the Devil Hunter Dante, who was the main protagonist of all Devil May Cry games that had been released. Nero's gameplay is a lot like Dante, but with a few major changes. For one, Nero's mechanical blade, the Red Queen, contains a fuel injection system that allows Nero to "rev" the handle of the blade, which makes the blade stronger and do more fire based attacks and combos. Nero's gun, Blue Rose, is a powerful double barrel revolver that can shoot two bullets at once. Nero himself doesn't have the power to use Devil Trigger, but his right arm is filled with demonic power, labelled as Devil Bringer. It allows him to use Devil Trigger-like powers, as it summons a bigger arm behind him. This arm can be used to grab opponents, pull opponents closer to you, quickly slingshot yourself to enemies and more. But don't fear! If you don't feel like playing as Nero, a bit over halfway through the story you get to control Dante again! If you're not into playing as Nero/Dante, you can instead play with Trish in Nero's place and Lady in Dante's place. You can also play as Vergil, Dante's brother.

Ranking:
9/10

Conclusion:

Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition has the most fun combat out of any DMC game. Dante's gameplay has been much improve from the already amazing combat that DMC3 Dante has, and Nero's unique mechanics make him a blast to play as and come up with different combos.

TLDR; DMC4SE has amazing combat and is a blast to play, should play previous DMC games before this.

very good

So when do I get to hold Baby by the pigtails and do her in the robot hole?

good.